The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1887-06-02

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town, and city of this continent with q
moral pestilence2 What will send
thousands of men on the first Tuesday in
November to the ballot-box maudlin,
incompetent, filthy and blasphemous?
Strong drink.
To prove that this is national evil I
call up
THREE STATES
in opposite directions Maine, Iowa, and
Georgia. Let them testify in regard to
this. State Of Maine says: "It is so
great an evil up here we have anathema.
tized it as State" State of Iowa says:
"It is so great an evil out here ne have
prohibited it by constitutional amend.
ment." State of Georgia says: "It is so
great an evil down here that ninety
counties of this State have made the sale
of Intoxicating drink criminality."
So the word comes up from all sources,
and it is going to be q Waterloo, and !
want you to know on what side l am
going to be when that Waterloo is fully
come, and I want you to be on the right
side. Either drunkenness will be
destroyed in this country or the Ameri-
can government will be destroyed.
Drunkenness and free institutions are
co ing into death. grapple.
Oh! how many are waiting to see if
something cannot be done. Thousands
of drunkards waiting who cannot 60 ten
minutes in any direction without having
the temptation glaring before their eyes
or appealing to their nostrils, they fight.
ing against it with enfeebled will and
diseased appetite, conquering, then sur.
rendering, conquering again and surren.
dering again, and crying: "How long,
Lord how long before these Infamous
solicitations shall be gomez" And how
many mothers there are waiting to see if
this national curse cannot lift! Oh
Is THAT THE BOY
that had the honest breath who comes
home with breath vitiated or disguised ?
What a change !! How quickly those
habits of early coming home have been
exchanged for the rattling Of the night.
key in the door long after the last
watchman has gone by and tried to see
that everything was closed up for the
nightl Oh! what change for that
young man who we had hoped would do
something in merchandise, or in artisan.
ship, or in profession that would do
honor to the family name long after
mothers wrinkled hands are folded from
the last toll ALI that exchanged for
startled look when the door-bell rings,
lest something has happened; and the
wish that the scarlet fever twenty years
ago had been fatal, for then he would
have gone directly TO the bosom of his
Saviour. But alas poor old soul, she
has lived to experience what Solomon
said: "a foolish son is a heaviness to
bis mother
Obi what funeral it will be when
that boy is brought home dead. And
how mother will sit there and say: "Is
this my boy that l used to fondle and
tina. walked the floor with in the night
when he was sick? Is this the boy that
I held to the baptismal font for baptism?
Is this the boy for whom toiled until
the blood burst from the tips of my fin.
gers, that he might have good atart and
good home? Lord, Why. hast Thou let
me live to see this ? Can it be that
these swollen hands are the ones TINT
used to wander over my face when rock.
ing him to sleep? Can it be that this is
the swollen brow that I once so raptur-
ously kissed? Poor boy how tired he
does look. I wonder who struck him
that blow across the temples? wonder
if he uttered a dying prayer7 Wake up,
my son; don't you hear me? wake up'l
Obi he can't hear me. Dead, dead,
dead % Absalom, my SOD, my son,
would. God that I had died for thee, o
Absalom, my son, my son :"
am not much of mathmetician, and
cannot estimate it; but is there any
one here quick enough at figures to esti.
mate how many mothers there are wait.
ing for something to be done I? Ay, there
are many wives waiting for domestic
rescue. BE promised something differ.
ent from that when, after the long
acquaintance and the careful scrutiny Of
character, the hand and the heart we're
offered and accepted. What hell on
earth woman lives in who has
A DRUNKEN HUsBANDl
O Death, how lovely thou art to her, and
how soft and warm thy skeleton hand
The sspulchre at midnight in winter is q
kings drawing.room compared with that
woman's home. It is not so much the
blow on the head that hurts as the blow
on the heart. The rum fepd came to
the door of this beautiful home, and
opened the door and stood there, and
said: IT curse this dwelling with an
unrelenting curse. I curse that father
into maniac, curse that mother into
pauper. I curse those sons into vaga-
bonds. I curse those daughters into
proAigacy. Cursed be bread tray and
cradle. Cursed be couch and chair, and
family Bible with record Of marriages and
births and deaths. Curse upon curse."
Oh ! how many wives are there waiting
to see if something cannot be done to
shake these frosts of the second death of
the orange.blossomsl Yea,
GOD is WAITING,
the God who works through human
instrnmentalities. waiting to see whether